A Love Letter to the 'Pale Blue Dot' on Its 35th Anniversary

I love science. I love space. And I love incredibly historic photos that put our entire existence into perspective and unite the human race in a way that had never been done before.

I'm talking about the famous "Pale Blue Dot" photo, taken on this day, Valentine's Day, 35 years ago, when NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft turned around and took a photo of absolutely nothing.

Well, it wasn't exactly nothing. Because in that endless darkness, there was one pale blue dot, barely a pixel. And on that tiny speck was everything - you, everyone you know, everyone you don't know, every person who has ever lived, every animal, every plant, every triumph and tragedy in human history. They were all right there, together, on that one blue pixel. Makes you think.

Capturing this image took a decade of planning, overcoming risks to Voyager's sensitive cameras, budget cuts, and layoffs. But once it was taken from beyond the orbit of Neptune, it took three months for the spacecraft to slowly transmit the image back to Earth, pixel by pixel, a final glance at home before venturing into interstellar space.

Of course, no one described it better than Carl Sagan, whose words still resonate today:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us."

"Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Thirty-five years later, Voyager 1 is now 15.5 billion miles from Earth, still faithfully sending back data. But interstellar space has proven to be a lonely place. This little probe has spent 35 Valentine's Days alone, drifting further and further into the unknown.

So today, as we celebrate love, let's share some of it with Voyager 1, our tiny robotic explorer that gave us a new way to see ourselves. Let's appreciate the pale blue dot we call home, cherish the people who share it with us, and remember that no matter how big the universe may seem - we are all in this together.